- Claudia Gardner photograph
Dwaine Josephs, Head Boy of Knockalva Agricultural School, tending to string beans on the school farm.
Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer
LUCEA, Hanover:
NESTLED IN the cool hills of Ramble in eastern Hanover is the Knockalva Agricultural School, one of the oldest such institutions in Jamaica.
A co-educational boarding institution, Knockalva, which was established in 1940, has the capacity to accommodate 250 students but it currently registers less than half this number.
Heckford Brown, vice-principal, has been teaching at the school for just over 24 years.
He said that the school has undergone several changes in terms of curriculum content and physical structure, "(But) with all these changes Knockalva has maintained its commitment to the development of instructional and social programmes."
This commitment takes into account the interests, needs and aspirations of students, to prepare them for academic advancement and roles of effective citizenship and leadership in a global society, he said.
According to the vice-principal, the current academic programme integrates theoretical classroom instruction with practical farm application, focusing on training in scientific agriculture, ethics, community service and personal development.
SELF-SUSTAINING FARM
The school operates a self-sustaining farm, which provides revenues to assist with the procurement of equipment and other relevant items and there are proposals to make the farm even more efficient.
"There are plans to expand our livestock, poultry and agronomy area, plant 20 acres of orchard crops, five acres of pineapple and ten acres of banana for our own meals at the school as well as for local sale," Mr. Brown told Farmers Weekly.
At the same time, the institution is considering a major recruitment drive, to attract more person to the school.
Among the skills taught at Knockalva are tractor driving, plant propagation, vegetable and dairy husbandry, poultry goat and pig rearing as well as bee-keeping.
"Upon completing their three years here, students are equipped to own and operate their own farms, and become field assistants, farm managers, among other professionals," said Mr. Brown.
Dwaine Josephs, head boy, said his two years at the institution have been very rewarding. But Josephs, who wishes to become a landscaping engineer, said he was concerned about the impacts that imports of foreign products will have on the agricultural sector.
Farmers Weekly thanks all the individuals from the respective agricultural training institutions who contributed to Moulding Minds , a series of features on agricultural training institutions.
Coming soon: May 22 is 'International Bio-diversity Day', we will go beyond the science of bio-diversity to learn the roles of farmers in this process and we will examine the need for farmers to respond to environmental changes to promote biological safety. All these and more in our next series of features from May 1 - 22.
